Series goes backstage with ballet company

Thursday

May 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2012 at 11:54 AM

"In a cutthroat world with fierce competition," a disembodied voice says. "There is rivalry and relationships," another continues. Although these statements sound as if they could be uttered by any of the countless stars of reality-TV competitions, there is one crucial difference: These young men and women are wearing ballet tights and costumes.

“In a cutthroat world with fierce competition,” a disembodied voice says.

“There is rivalry and relationships,” another continues.

Although these statements sound as if they could be uttered by any of the countless stars of reality-TV competitions, there is one crucial difference: These young men and women are wearing ballet tights and costumes.

They are the dramatis personae of Breaking Pointe, a six-episode reality show making its debut tonight on the CW. The series reveals the inner workings of Ballet West, a troupe based in Salt Lake City.

Development on Breaking Pointe began a year ago, but the idea for the show started long before that.

“I had a couple of real obsessions with worlds I wanted to explore dramatically,” Jane Tranter, the head of BBC Worldwide Productions, which is producing the show, said recently. “One was ballet; the other was a convent.”

Each, Tranter said, offered “a world which is a hidden world: There’s what the public sees and what happens underneath.”

As it turned out, the dance world proved more readily accessible, thanks to both Tranter’s own experience and lucky timing. Tranter was an early figure in the development of Dancing With the Stars (which was based on the British series Strictly Come Dancing).

“The attitude toward ballroom dancing when I first started talking to people about it was not so different from the attitude toward ballet,” she said. “It’s not as rarefied, but people thought it was in its own way as eccentric a dance form to put on screen. And look what happened to that.”

When the movie Black Swan came out, Tranter said, she knew the time was right to seize upon the new awareness of ballet.

CW officials felt the same way, and the network picked up Breaking Pointe without a pilot.

Getting Breaking Pointe off the ground proved to be a lengthy process. Casting producers considered about 15 ballet schools.

The show focuses on seven company members at varying levels in its ranks, including Christiana Bennett, a much-admired principal artist; brothers Ronald and Rex Tilton (who both have romantic relationships with ballerinas on the show); Ronnie Underwood, a self-professed gear head and “most unlikely ballet dancer you will ever meet”; and promising ingenue Beckanne Sisk.

The show begins during the delicate time of contract renewals, and, in an unusually open turn, Adam Sklute, the artistic director, lets cameras into his office as he promotes dancers and releases one.

For the charismatic, chatty Sklute, who has been Ballet West’s artistic director since 2007, participating in Breaking Pointe was always appealing.

“There are so many misconceptions about dancers,” Sklute said. “They were very clear about what they wanted to do: They wanted to paint a true-to-life picture of what the ballet world really is. “ Of course there were concerns, but I really liked the message behind the project and their whole approach.”

Persuading his company was another matter entirely.

“Adam didn’t really reveal his position on it,” Rex Tilton said. “He approached us and kind of put it in our ballpark to figure out if we wanted to go through with it.”

Bennett said: “I was not convinced in the beginning. I thought it was a very interesting idea — and one which is long overdue — but there’s a lot to weigh. I’m more of a quiet, withdrawn person, so I was very wary.”

The first episode bears CW imprints — a buoyant indie-rock soundtrack, romantic relationships front and center — but equal attention goes to the day-to-day happenings of Ballet West itself. During the course of the series, viewers will see the dancers prepare and compete for parts in a season that includes Don Quixote and a repertory program with Balanchine’s Emeralds, Petipa’s Paquita and Kylian’s Petite Mort.

Tranter said she specifically picked cameramen with “sensitivity and the ability to dissolve quickly into the background.”

Kristen Vandas, head of reality development at the CW, said of the dancers: “At the end of the day, they still have to work together, dance together and support each other. There’s a fine line of getting great TV and respecting that these are their lives and careers.”

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